Wrestling With God

 ²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”-Genesis 32:28


I've always looked at the story of Jacob wrestling with God as kind of symbolic of the big issues in our lives.  We wrestle with God when we endure the hardest trials.  Things we don't understand like the death of a child, or  a marriage we thought was solid suddenly breaking up, or random tragedies that just don't make sense to us.  We want to know why, so we wrestle with God.  And we know it is God we wrestle with.  We may even yell at him in our hurt and frustration.


But did you ever notice that in Jacob's dream, he didn't even realize he was wrestling with God until the end?  Sometimes we think we are wrestling with situations or supervisors or the government when really we are wrestling with God.  God may be trying to direct us, but in our blind determination to have things our own way, we keep shoving aside the signs and nudges God sends.  And the more determined God is for us to find his way, the harder we struggle to have our own way... and they we are... wrestling with God.


And like Jacob who carried the mark of his struggle on his hip, we too carry the scars of our wrestling with God... years wasted in the wrong profession; a child who rejects us because we didn't allow them to be their own person; a history of addiction in an attempt to fill the empty places in our souls that we wouldn't allow God to fill.


But once we realize that it is indeed God we are wrestling, we can say, "I will not let you go until you bless me!" Really the realization alone IS the blessing!  We can let go... and let God.  We can follow his path laid out before us with trust and faith and know that he is leading us to a full, abundant life.


It is hardest to let go of that struggle when God's path is leading down a road less traveled.  We want what the world wants us to want.  When God's plan for us is different, we wrestle.  But when we realize it is our Father we wrestle... the one who wants only good for our lives, we can let go and be blessed.


What are you wrestling with in your life?  Could it be God?


Father,
Help us to see you working in our lives so we won't waste time fighting against you.  Amen.


Joys:  Wonderful time at Grandfather Mountain with Richard and Cecelia; a shop that sells only cupcakes and watching Cecelia pick out just the right one; seeing the season's first snow on the mountain top